Tuesday, June 27, 2017

bondage and freedom

"At its Latin root, the word religion is linked to the words ligature and ligament, words having both negative and positive connotations, offering both bondage and freedom of movement."

- Dakota, Kathleen Norris
These two things are what fascinates me about the Benedictine way of life, and I can't stop thinking about it since we went to the monastery. In their "bondage" - which isn't really that, but a fixed dedication to keeping to their scheduled times of prayer and work throughout the day - but within that structured framework, they have their freedom of movement, as she says.

7 comments:

I am not (as you probably know) a religious person, though I have huge respect for a person having a faith. Organised religion, though, as variously interpreted by its relevant adherents, has caused one or two problems down the years; and still does, in places. But Benedict always struck me as being a good egg. Didn't he have something to say about the Church hanging onto its wealth and that it could be put to better use? The monastic lifestyle never fails to astonish me.

You know, I am not so familiar with everything he ever said, so I don't know. It's quite possible, Mike.The religions are often blamed for the (mis)conduct of it's members, and this seems more clear to me lately. We're such imperfect beings, that we mess things up and cause problems, as you say. This must be inevitable. As for you, I do know that you're not religious, but you do seem to have an interest in it. ; I also know that you're a nice, polite fellow. ;-) With a very interesting blog.

My father was a novice Friar for a couple of years until, at the end of his novitiate, he bowed to the pressure put on him by his family and left. He loved his time in the friary (the life being similar in many but not all ways to that of a monk) and we always thought that if my mother had died first he would have returned there to end his days. This is where he lived http://hilfieldfriary.org.uk/ and we often went back as a family to visit and meet his old friends. This is why my name is Clare.

Yes, it is strange to think that I am only here because my father suffered a great disappointment! He was a very loving dad but he never really gave up the habits he had formed while there. He was a cabinet maker and joiner and eventually decided to run his own business when I was about 15 years old. He would never charge for the time he took to make furniture or for the electricity etc he used. He just charged for the materials and what he thought the item was worth. He thought charging customers for anything more was immoral! It was a good thing that Mum went out to work or we would have starved!We visited the friary many times when we children were young but by the time I was about 10 many of his old friends had either died or been moved elsewhere to do other work. We visited in 1983 after I had been married to my first husband for a year as Mum and Dad had kindly taken us on holiday to the West Country. Richard and I also called in there when we were holidaying there in 2001 when Elinor was 4 years old.

neighbors dropping by

If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

more sunshine

About Me

I'm 62, work part-time in a public library and keep house for my brother and myself the rest of the time.
My main object with this blog is to show that no matter how small or plain your life may be, or seem to be, if you open your eyes and look for the interesting, the comical, the beautiful, you will see it.